The company Inversiones Empresariales Ebro threatens legal action against AraInfo and two of its journalists and co-founders, Chorche Tricas and Iker González, and also against the councilor of Zaragoza en Común (ZeC) in the Zaragoza city council, Suso Domínguez
The cause of this threat is the publication of information in this Diario Libre last November, which revealed the subsidies granted by the Zaragoza council, then governed by the PP, to a company that did not meet the requirements or required objectives. The company has presented a conciliation document in which it accuses AraInfo and the other defendants of an alleged crime of libel and slander and revelation of secrets.
The company demands that AraInfo publicly rectify the news ‘The Zaragoza City Council (PP) subsidizes a currently closed pole franchise with 70,000 euros’ and ‘Another 65,000 euros ‘subsidy’ for the friends of Chueca’. The conciliation ceremony will take place next Wednesday, March 6, in the Zaragoza courts. If the company is not satisfied with AraInfo’s response, it will file a complaint in which it will request the imposition of the corresponding penalty, which according to the Penal Code can be up to two years in prison and/or a fine of thousands of euros.
The AraInfo Council and Assembly reject the accusations and are not going to rectify
In a statement released to the media, the Council and the Assembly of AraInfo have expressed their “flat rejection of the accusations and we announce that we are not going to rectify them.” They have denounced this lawsuit as “an attempt to intimidate us in a new judicial attack on press freedom and the right to information. Attacks that only aim to silence and silence journalists and media. However, if we did not publish it would not be out of caution but out of fear, and it is in the essence of the free press to overcome that fear and defend the right to publish in the best possible way: by publishing,” they added.
The irregularities of the subsidies granted by the Zaragoza City Council to Inversiones Empresariales Ebro
The articles published in AraInfo detail the subsidized amounts and the objectives presented for obtaining these subsidies by the Ebro Business Initiatives, “including aspects that are at least surprising: a shopping mall that does not exist or a web server that does not exist. In addition, attached is the communication received by AraInfo, by email, from the Loco Polo brand – the brand used by Ebro Business Initiatives in the first subsidy – clarifying that ‘it has no relationship nor has it been informed about the subsidy request made’ ”.
It is also considered relevant that “at the head of Inversiones Empresariales Ebro is the son of the founder of Escuela y Despensa, a cultural and business social platform association and later a foundation, of which he was also treasurer, who filed the lawsuit against the Luis Community Social Center Buñuel who ended up being evicted in February 2023 by the Zaragoza City Council, then under the command of Jorge Azcón (PP) – now president of the Government of Aragon –, and by the current mayor of Zaragoza, Natalia Chueca (PP).” Zaragoza en Común has requested explanations for this subsidy without obtaining a response from the municipal government.
#AraInfoSinMordazas, a campaign for freedom of information
Faced with this situation, they have created #AraInfoSinMordazas, “a campaign for freedom of information for which we ask for your support: that of the community that makes this Free Newspaper possible—its subscribers, collaborators and readers—and of all those people, groups and media that defend critical and independent journalism,” they state.
